Art Professor Photographs Artist-Activists For New Book Lily Prince, associate professor of art, began her career as a photographer thirty years ago before moving into painting and drawing. Now, she has gone full circle, once again embracing photography and adding it to her accomplished repertoire of painting and drawing in order to collaborate with the writer Richard Klin on a new book, Something to Say: Thoughts on Art and Politics in America. The book profiles an eclectic group of fifteen American artists working in a wide range of media, including musicians Pete Seeger and Yoko Ono, chef and food activist Didi Emmons, and filmmaker Gini Reticker, and features their thoughts on the complicated relationship between art and politics in the United States. Klin wrote the essays, while Prince provided the accompanying portraits. Prince says she was energized by the challenge of capturing the essence of her subjects. Some were photographed during the actual interviews, while others were posed in their studios or another setting. “For example, I photographed the cartoonist Jen Sorensen in a
Legendary musician Pete Seeger, one of the artist-activists photographed by Lily Prince
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comics store in New York City, right under some Peanuts cartoon lunch boxes,” she says. “Pete Seeger is placed outside near his beloved Hudson River in his hometown.” She chose to photograph in black and white, using only natural light. “It allows for the spirit of the person to emerge without the distraction of color,” she explains. “And the contrast of bold black against stark white creates more drama.” According to Prince, interest in the book on college campuses continues to grow. Following a book tour this past spring, she and Klin are scheduled to serve as visiting lecturers this fall at Yale University, Rutgers University, and Hunter College.
Breaking Barriers: Student’s MixedAbilities Dance Company Celebrates Joy of Dance When University sophomore Mark Travis Rivera was born, he weighed one pound. Diagnosed with a mild case of cerebral palsy, he wore braces on his legs until middle school, when he underwent corrective surgery that allowed him to walk unassisted. At Paterson’s Rosa Parks High School for the Performing Arts, where he focused on communication, he met dance instructor Erin Pride, who introduced him to the art of dance. It was an experience that has changed his life. “I was not your traditional dance student,” says Rivera, who started training at age sixteen. “I wasn’t expecting
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people to understand why I had such a strong desire to dance, but I knew I was not alone. So I have dedicated myself to breaking not only my personal barriers but also the barriers created by society to prove that any individual can dance.” In 2009, he formed marked dance project, a mixedabilities dance company that includes dancers with and without disabilities. He recruited a small troupe of performers, solicited guest choreographers to set pieces for the group, and found donated rehearsal space in Hawthorne through Shar-
last month, the company hosted Spectrum, a dance benefit concert for autism in Shea Center on campus that featured performances by six professional companies from New Jersey, New York, and Florida. Rivera, who is majoring in communication and women’s and gender studies, has already made an impact at William Paterson. The recipient of the 2011 Dean of Students Award for the freshman class, presented for outstanding leadership, involvement, service to the University and community, and academic achievement,
Mark Travis Rivera and dancer Elizabeth Masci in “Forbidden,” a work choreographed by Rivera
ing the Arts, an organization dedicated to individuals with special needs. By May 2010, Rivera staged the company’s first show in a converted performance space in Paterson. Now, less than eighteen months later, the professional company is flourishing. Currently in residence at the University (it also has club status), the company has grown to fifteen dancers, including two in wheelchairs, with a repertory of eight pieces. It has performed three times at the Youth Regional Dance Festival sponsored by ContempraDance Theatre, a modern dance company in Philadelphia, and twice at Access Ridgewood, an annual celebration of those with disabilities, special gifts, and special needs. And, just
he served as co-news editor for The Beacon newspaper and weekend programming chair for the Student Activities Programming Board. This academic year, he is president of the sophomore class, vice president of CHOSEN, and an orientation leader and peer leader for Freshman Seminar; he also works on campus as a dance instructor for recreational services and a desk assistant in a residence hall in order to pay for school. “Dance and writing and activism are my passions,” he says. A first-generation college student whose mother did not complete high school, he believes his hard work will bring success. “The best part is I get to do what I love.”
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